The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “art”

Football photographers get used to many things, variable lighting across a pitch, non league floodlights and inclement weather. It is just what we do. Add to that sloping pitches, players warming up in front of you, and the fun really starts. But it is a challenge. My Canon EOS 5D MK3 copes reasonably well with all this, and a small amount of playing afterwards reduces some of the grain, albeit at the expense sometimes of sharpness. I really enjoy these challenges.

These photos come from a non league cup game, Velocity trophy, and was actually a great game to watch for the neutral. Here are some of the photos both of the game and the fans which capture the magic of non league.

An afternoon dog walk on this grey day . Residential New Malden is not too bad. The only negative was the usual rubbish strewn along pavements . The beer cans and quarter brandy bottles suggest that neither Veolia nor Foxes can be blamed for everything.

There are some nice views. The Beverly Brook is not a bad little tributary. The big old house on Blake’s Lane . Even the grey skies. Not too bad at all.

Arriving in Helsinki you often could be forgiven for thinking the whole world has turned grey. Grey streets accompanied by grey sky and cold looking people . But you are wrong . Walking down any of the streets you eventually reach either the harbour or the centre area with the train station. Helsinki geography is easy.

The first surprise is that there are dozens of nice and slightly old fashioned coffee shops . Sitting outside is pleasant though in autumn a decent coat is needed. Some of them make you feel like you have stepped back in time.

My favourite has always been Cafe Strindberg. The coffee is nice although Nordic prices mean you pay 4.5€ for a cup of coffee. The atmosphere is slightly old worlde. The waitresses are mostly stern looking women but efficient and pleasant at the same time. They look the part wearing long white aprons. The coffee is good . If you are brave you can sit outside. The Croque Monsieur will set you back 12.50€ but is great.

There is a kind of healthiness here that is good . Water comes automatically with coffee. As it should . Coffee is a powerful diuretic . As an accompaniment to the sandwich you can choose grilled vegetables or crisps or salad. The grilled vegetables tasted superb mostly aubergine. The other nice thing is that they do not speak necessarily English. Why should they . This is Finland. The clientele are mixed. Some older couples looking guilty sipping their wine with lunch. Not speaking much . Just comfortable in their own presence. No one waits to be seated. One just walks in and sits wherever followed by the stern waitress with menu in hand . Young men under 20 years sit with their coffee and talk animatedly. Someone eating on their own like myself is comfortable.

In short this a lovely place to drink coffee and eat lunch . No pressure to eat quickly . If you are in Helsinki just try this place .

At the back of the Hilton hotel at Anderston around 2 pm there were two fire engines in attendance spraying . It looked like a spillage that was being neutralised. Relating to a lorry parked there presumably .

A group of workers are now clearing up the materials. Clearly folks were evacuated from either the Hilton or from the adjacent building . Around 2.45 pm they were allowed to return .

Each day social media is full of posts about the rubbish and mess that abounds in Merton and other localities. I don’t seek these posts they are there in their droves . Just search for #muckymerton and see what emerges.

The pattern is too familiar. Fewer collections of any type, rubbish dumped at bins , rubbish just dumped. End result is a total mess and more rats. I have seen more rats this year 2018 than in the combined 20+ years I have been living in the area. This is not even mentioning the mess foxes make . Take a walk through any Merton area around midnight to 5 am and the foxes are having a party. They are breeding well and in our area Monday night is festival night for them. Folks put their rubbish out for a Tuesday collection and the foxes firstly collect it then spread it over whole streets. We must accept that we are partially at fault here as asked to put rubbish out by 6 am . And everyone loves getting up at 6 am to do this.

Merton has been trialling things that are certainly unconventional. In the face of ever increasing mess and litter in some areas and parks they are removing waste bins and replacing them with , well, nothing.

I am no refuse disposal expert but then clearly neither are the council. But what I do see is other cities and towns in Europe that are devoid of rubbish and clean despite having far more citizens and visitors. Earlier this year I wrote a post on Ljubljana in Slovenia where underground rubbish and recycling bins provide an excellent solution.

The collection is also simpler with workers not having to handle any of the lovely rubbish and recycling.

What prompted me to write this article today is Berlin. This is summer . Tourist peak season. Temperatures around 34c . Yet walking to some business appointments there is no rubbish. Bins are either empty or certainly not full. Containers like small skips allow rubbish and recycling to be collected. Maybe the mentality is better too. Less fly tipping and discarding aimlessly of rubbish. Simply Berlin is clean. Whatever systems are used and funded Merton and other councils could do worse than learning about and adopting .

Following my post on Ljubljana I learned that such underground recycling and rubbish collection facilities are available in parts of Southern Spain and Northern England. This is not futuristic thinking its plain common sense and needs funding and adoption.

To me the way things are going in Merton, watching rats run free next to roads , rubbish piled up and bins overflowing, we have a system that is not working and in many regards is not unlike London in the 1700’s. Whoever decides , funds and is accountable is failing the residents. The better step is adoption of change , not reducing collections . Look for alternative options. Otherwise, I can see legal challenges from residents who pay their council taxes. We are traveling right now in the wrong direction.

The game itself was a hard fought fairly dire at times 1-0 win resulting from a penalty that might not have been given on some days. Brentford continue their march towards a play-off place, which is unlikely but certainly possible.

The game was sad to watch really . Ipswich came with no intent to actually play football and were the definition of anti-football. Many photos show some of the pulling and pushing, and although no side are angels, this was frankly quite bad. All the things I can recall from old division 4 football when playing some of the teams like Workington and Bradford PA. There was endless pushing, pulling, shirt pulling, general fouling and little else. Much of the Ipswich training manual must consist of where to run to get a new tattoo judging by the decor on view.

The Ipswich fans generally did not much like McCarthy and many wonder why he has not walked now rather than announce his grand exit for the end of the season. If this is his style, then Sir Bobby Robson will be turning rather more in his grave than some of the Ipswich strikers did during the game. I recall Ipswich well as a child and my claim to fame was spending time at Sir Bobby’s house ( where the lawn was in fact the extra turf from Portman Road following a build of a new stand), having him cook breakfasts ( they were superb) and him getting me into games by telling the turnstile guys I was an Ipswich youth player. But I also recall that they played real football back then.

Luke Hyam received the expected welcome based on his nasty tackle two years ago, but more so on his refusal to apologise. Frankly he was poor and there was nothing to really show why he had been restored to the team. Alan Judge made his first home start also since his leg break.

I found the Ipswich fans generally amusing with chants like ” we are the numbskulls” presumably in reference to comments from McCarthy. McCarthy cut a sad looking figure, not so tall as I had imagined and generally looking worn down. This surely will be his last football tenure.

The game itself had few clearcut chances from either team, though towards the end Dan Bentley made some excellent saves, that are probably routine for him. Brentford lacked creativity in midfield and seemed to miss Flo Jo. For me yet again Josh McCeachran looked average at best and not maybe the standards we need next season. Yoann Barbet looked a composed footballer but needs to reduce the number of bad passes that accompany his array of excellent ones. The left back berth is his to keep until next season. Romaine Sawyers certainly had his most physical game for Bees and the fact he was marking Hyam may have had something to do with that. His push on Hyam almost into the dugout in the early minutes set the tone for him. He also defended far more than most Bees fans realise, including myself. It is only when looking at defensive photos that I noticed how often he is there often behind the central defenders.

Some Bees fans still think we have a chance of the playoffs but for me we are in the top 10 teams but not the top 6. Bees lack the physicality to be a play off team and the points dropped against the “big” sides are what has cost us in addition to the missed chances. The recent “addition” of Chris Mepham has helped hugely.

The look that Martyn Waghorn gives Chris Mepham here is priceless. Lastly, did anyone else notice Mick McCarthy and Nico Yennaris having a cosy chat while they walked out before the start of the game. Anything in that at all?

As always Barbet is an extra spirit in the side and adds something that is immeasureable. For me he might be the next Brentford captain.

Having said all that we did win and we do still have a chance of the playoffs. Onwards and upwards……